Thursday, May 19, 2011

Giving my family healthy food is something that is very important to me. Over the past 4 years I have worked very hard to move away from all of the processed junk, and believe me, we ate too much of it. We still eat some processed foods but the ones we do eat I try to keep them either natural or organic so that the ingredients are not horrific. One of the things we pretty much eliminated all together were lunch meats since it was nearly impossible for me to find nitrate-free options and studies have show nitrates linked to certain cancers.

Then I recently discovered Applegate Farms who makes quality organic & natural meats. Their range of natural meat products is actually quite extensive from more than 20 cold cut meats to hot dogs, sausages and bacon to frozen meat products like chicken nuggets and beef burgers. They even have cheese. Some of their products are certified organic and the rest are all-natural and antibiotic free. You will also not find any added nitrates or nitrates in any of the Applegate products.

When you pick up an Applegate Farms product, you can be assured that...~ Our animals are never given antibiotics. Healthy animals don’t need medicine. Instead, we give them space, fresh air, and a healthy diet, which we’re certain beats the alternative.~ Our livestock eat a completely vegetarian diet with no animal by-products. Cattle in our organic program are grass-fed. Hogs and poultry in our organic program are fed a grain diet that includes corn, soy, barley, and flax that are free from GMOs.~ Our animals are never given hormones or artificial growth promotants. They grow at their natural rate.~ All of our products are made with natural and organic ingredients. If you aren’t familiar with a particular ingredient, email us and we’ll tell you what it is.~ Our products are all minimally processed, allowing for a wholesome texture and taste.~ Our products never contain artificial nitrates or nitrites. Instead, we use celery juice and sea salt to preserve our products the natural and old fashioned way.~ Our deli meat, hot dogs, burgers, and bacon are gluten and casein free.~ Our products are made from natural and organic whole muscle meat. Yes, even our hot dogs! No mystery here.

Applegate Farms sent me a bunch of yummy food to try out and believe me I enjoyed it! From their cold cuts line I tasted the Natural Roasted Chicken Breast and Natural Pepperoni. Up until this point I had never had chicken in lunch meat form so this was totally new for me. The Applegate chicken breast was so good that it has now become a staple for me in my house. I don't like to eat lunch meat every day, but maybe two to three times a week I will have the chicken bread with lettuce, tomato and dried cranberries on toasted bread. It is delicious! Oh and smeared with mayonnaise which I realize negates anything healthy I was trying to do but I don't care. I am getting hungry from just typing that. now when I opened up the package of Applegate pepperoni my 6 year old came over to check it out and ask what it was. Then he asked to try it and most parents know that when a kid asks to try something new on his own, that is HUGE. So he tried a slice. And then another. And another. Yeah their pepperoni was a huge hit. I have to admit that it even made me a fan. I am not a fan of spicy foods and this was not overly spicy at all and had a really nice flavor. I found myself opening the fridge just to grab a few slices to snack on.

I was also sent some of Applegate's frozen breakfast sausages to try out. Now my husband will not touch any kind of bacon, sausage or burger made with turkey. I have no idea why because it doesn't make any sense to me since he does like turkey. So he ate the Natural Classic Pork Breakfast Sausage while I ate the Natural Savory Turkey Breakfast Sausage. He was so excited to have sausage with is eggs in the morning! The breakfast sausage can either be cooked in the microwave or in a pan on your stove top. The first morning we tried it in the microwave and I would not recommend that. It could just be the strength of ours, but they came out very tough. So on morning #2 I did it on the stove and they were so much better this way. My husband gobbled his up and definitely enjoyed them. A lot. What I found interesting is these sausages also had a little kick of pepper to them. It was very different and tasty.

I was so excited to see that our Big Y in town carried their products and just recently our Stop & Shop started carrying them as well. As I mentioned since receiving my samples of Applegate Farms meats I have been continuously buying the Roasted Chicken Breast lunch meat. Last week I picked up some of their bacon and no joke, the best bacon ever! I am dying to try their grass fed organic beef hot dogs, which have rave reviews on their website. I might have to pick up a package of those very soon.

Giveaway
Applegate Farms sent me a bunch of coupons to giveaway! So four (4) winners will each receive ten (10) $1.00 off coupons good for any Applegate Farms product.

Extra Entries
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This giveaway is open to legal US Residents 18+ only and will end on Tuesday, June 14 at 11:59pm EST. One winner will be chosen at random using Random.org and will be posted on the Winner's Announcement Page. Winner has 48 hours to claim his/her prize otherwise a new winner will be picked. Please leave your e-mail address in all of your comment(s) so I can contact you. I will not share your e-mail address with anyone, it will strictly be used to notify you if you win. Good luck!

Please note that the opinions and views expressed in this review are my own and based on my personal experience with the product and/or company. You may encounter a different experience with this than I did. I received a product free of charge for review.

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